Prices rise Egypt’s crisis to blame however oil prices were rising artificially before the peaceful protests in Egypt. The price of crude was pushing towards $100.00 a barrel weeks ago on another unexplained price hike by OPEC.

Since before Christmas in December 2010 oil and gas prices were rising slowly and moving up for no reason from $70.00 to $ 80.00. In the first few weeks of January, 2011 oil prices rose to $ 90.00 a barrel and hovered at that level for weeks. There was no tie to the Egypt crisis for oil prices to rise in 2010 from $ 75.00 a barrel to just under $ 90.00 a barrel in December of 2010. The rise for six months in 2010 was an increase of 16.4 percent.

Europe’s oil travels through the Suez Canal and therefore prices in Europe are rising. However the oil that feeds America does not travel through the Suez but around Africa in larger carriers. Again if those ships are not traveling through the Suez there should be no threat of shortages and no rise in prices except for the artificial ones created by oil producers.